Why Vancouver Is Often Called the Most Asian City Outside of Asia

If you have walked through Richmond on a Saturday morning, grabbed dim sum on No. 3 Road, or stood in line for bubble tea in downtown Vancouver, you already know this city feels different from the rest of North America. It is not just a feeling. The numbers back it up.

According to the 2021 Census, more than half of Metro Vancouver’s population, 54 percent, now identifies as a visible minority, and Chinese, South Asian, and Filipino communities make up the three largest groups in the region. In the City of Vancouver itself, Chinese residents alone make up close to 26 percent of the population, making Chinese the single largest ethnic group in the city, ahead of English and Scottish origins combined.

Zoom out to the whole metro area and the picture gets even bigger. East Asian residents, meaning people of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese background, make up close to a quarter of Metro Vancouver’s 2.6 million people. Add South Asian communities, who represent another 14 percent of the region and include one of the largest South Asian populations anywhere outside of Asia, and you start to understand why so many people call Vancouver the most Asian city outside of Asia.

Richmond, sitting just south of Vancouver proper, takes this even further. Widely cited figures put Richmond at around 74 percent Asian descent, with over half of that being Chinese origin alone, making it one of the only cities anywhere outside of Asia where residents of Asian heritage form a clear majority. Across the wider Metro Vancouver region, commonly cited estimates put the share of residents with Asian heritage somewhere between 43 and 45 percent, which is the highest concentration of any major metropolitan area outside the continent itself. Richmond’s skyline, malls, and restaurant scene reflect that reality every single day.

What makes Vancouver special is not only the size of these communities, but how deeply woven they are into daily life. Mandarin and Cantonese are heard as often as English in some neighborhoods. Lunar New Year celebrations shut down streets. Signage in Chinese, Punjabi, Korean, and Tagalog is part of the normal streetscape, not a novelty. Vancouver’s food scene, arguably one of the best in North America for Asian cuisine, did not happen by accident. It happened because generations of families built businesses here, brought recipes from home, and raised children who grew up bicultural.

For decades, waves of immigration from Hong Kong, Mainland China, India, the Philippines, Korea, and Vietnam have shaped this city’s identity. Vancouver was not built as a European outpost that later diversified. It was built, quite literally, by Asian labor, from the railway workers of the 1880s, through decades of exclusionary immigration policy that slowed growth for a time, to the wave of Hong Kong families who arrived before the 1997 handover, many through Canadian business immigration programs, and helped transform the west side of the city. Today’s Vancouver is the continuation of that story, not a departure from it.

I have spent my career in West Vancouver, North Vancouver, and Downtown Vancouver real estate, and I can tell you this demographic reality shapes everything about how homes are bought, sold, and valued here. Buyers come from Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, Seoul, Mumbai, and Manila as often as they come from Toronto or Calgary. Understanding cultural preferences, from feng shui in floor plans to the importance of certain numbers in an address, is not a nice to have in this market. It is essential.

Years before I got into real estate, I made a decision that some people found unusual at the time. I went out of my way to secure the number 778.888.8888.

In Chinese culture, the number 8 is considered the luckiest number there is. The word for eight, ba, sounds almost identical to the word for prosperity or wealth, fa. That is not a small detail. It shapes how people choose license plates, wedding dates, apartment floors, and yes, phone numbers, across Chinese communities and much of East and Southeast Asia. A number like 888 is not just lucky. It is a symbol of doubling and tripling prosperity, wealth stacked on wealth.

I chose that number long before I knew exactly where my career would take me, because I understood even then how much weight numbers carry in the culture of so many of my future clients and neighbours. Eight eights in a row is not something you find twice. It is a number people notice, remember, and often comment on the moment they see it on a business card or a for sale sign.

In a city where a meaningful share of buyers and sellers come from backgrounds where the number 8 carries real cultural weight, having 778.888.8888 as my direct line has turned into more than a nice conversation starter. It has opened doors. Clients remember it instantly. Referrals pass it along without hesitation, because a number like that is easy to trust and easy to share. In an industry built on relationships and word of mouth, that kind of built-in credibility is worth more than most marketing budgets.

Vancouver’s reputation as the most Asian city outside of Asia is not a marketing slogan. It is a description of a place shaped, generation after generation, by the people who chose to call it home. For those of us working in real estate here, that history is not background noise. It is the market itself, and understanding it, respecting it, and in small ways like a phone number, honouring it, is part of doing this job well.

If you are thinking about buying or selling a property in West Vancouver, North Vancouver, or Downtown Vancouver, or you simply have questions about how this market works, reach out anytime. Call or text Matt Gul at 778.888.8888, or email matt@mattgul.com, for expert guidance on luxury, waterfront, and international real estate.

If you are a buyer looking for someone to walk you through your next purchase step by step, Selin Gul is ready to give you the informed, honest advice you need to move forward with confidence. Reach Selin through the Matt Gul Group at 778.888.8888 or by email at selin@mattgul.com.

Whether you are exploring the market for the first time or ready to make a move, we would love to hear from you.